Getting the best out of an ati radeon hd 3200 laptop (hp pavilion dv7-

[jca2007]

I have hp pavilion dv7-1240us 8gb ram, ati radeon hd 3200 not sure if I can upgrade the graphics of my laptop and AMD Turion X2 Dual Core Mobile RM-72 @ 2.10ghz and 320gb hdd Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit with an external usb 1tb hard drive.

I upgraded the ram myself with Patriot 2x 4gb sticks Patriot Signature CL6 4GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Laptop Memory Model PSD24G8002S

found here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220382

My question is what can I do to get the best performance out of my graphics? I have noticed I can't run higher end games like LOTR Online, which isn't really that high end of graphics but It gets laggy and I can't play. I thought 8gb of ram would help that. I can play Star Wars Galaxies Online and Civilization IV just fine. I have the latest ATI Graphics. Should I download Optimized Graphics to get better performance or is my Video Card just Sh177Y?

Would it do good trying to upgrade the processor or is there any kind of optimizations I can do? I have the Catalyst Control Panel options on max.

I also have 10mb cable in my barracks room.

[CoffeeFiend]

I upgraded the ram myself with Patriot 2x 4gb sticks Patriot Signature CL6 4GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Laptop Memory Model PSD24G8002S

Honestly, that sounds mainly like a waste of money. $340 of RAM in a laptop with a low-end dual core CPU and very slow "non-gaming" video, just to play games. Games require exactly the inverse: nowhere near that much RAM, preferably more CPU power, but mainly a LOT faster video card.

My question is what can I do to get the best performance out of my graphics?

You're just going to have to live with a lower resolution, lower details or such (lower the settings) in your game, or get a new computer (or a console).

is my Video Card just Sh177Y?

It's great for anything -- besides gaming. It's plenty good for Aero Glass, playing HD video (H.264, Blu-Ray, etc), OpenGL-accelerated apps and mostly everything. But not games (I mean, besides the old games that will pretty much play on anything). That video won't ever be good at playing games. You want to play games then you need a better GPU (video card), it's that simple. A reasonably nice card for a gamer would be a Radeon 4850 (~$100) or such, and that card happens to be about a dozen times faster than that you've got. I mean, there's $20 video cards that are like twice as fast as yours. Also, a fair amount of games will use quite a bit of CPU power at times, and the CPU in that laptop gets slaughtered by a super-low end $40-ish CPU like the E3300 (a bit more than twice as fast).

Sorry!

[jca2007]

I am not familiar with replacing video cards on laptops as well as processors but I know I can on Desktop computers. So would I be able to replace my video card on this Laptop? I can't find out any information from HP about this....

[CoffeeFiend]

So would I be able to replace my video card on this Laptop?

No, you simply can't. You're looking at a new laptop/computer or console.

[kz26]

You do realize that the Radeon HD 3200 (both the desktop and laptop variants) is not a true video card, but an integrated GPU? The low gaming performance you're seeing is typical of IGP solutions. Since it's a laptop with an on-board GPU, you won't be able to upgrade it.

[Zenskas]

Couple of things you can do:

Run your games at low resolutions like 800x600 in a window so they don't look stretched.

Ensure you have all the latest chipset/video/sound/DirectX drivers.

Defrag your HDD and do some basic maintenance such as getting a program like CCleaner to remove junk files, then do a virus scan, do a spyware scan, download and install any windows updates etc. These won't help much with gaming but you could have a virus that can slow down even old games.

Play old games. There are loads of great old games that will still run fine. Or modern "indie" games will most likely run fine too such as Peggle, World of Goo, Audiosurf, Torchlight, Plants vs Zombies etc. I even play these games fine on a tiny 10" netbook with 2GB RAM, 1.66GHz CPU and a really slow 224MB Intel GMA 950 GPU.

Maxing out your RAM was a bit of a waste but hey, you can always take that RAM out and put it in another laptop should you decide to buy a laptop with a better CPU+GPU anytime soon.

Hopefully you will be able to get some enjoyment out of it now

And CoffeeFiend: Sure a 4850 would kill his 3200 but remember it's a laptop and even high end laptop GPU's get beaten by middle class desktop GPU's.

Oh and I wouldn't recommend a 4850 anymore either. If you were to get a desktop get something like a 5770 or better. Nice new DX11, super cool running, very low power consumption and a good bit faster than a 4850 while using less power too. I recently built a PC with a 5770 and it's great. Not quite as fast as the GTX 260+ OC in my main rig (otherwise it would be in that) but a very decent performing card especially for it's size.

[puntoMX]

Maxing out your RAM was a bit of a waste but hey, you can always take that RAM out and put it in another laptop should you decide to buy a laptop with a better CPU+GPU anytime soon.

Well, He might be better off selling his notebook DDR2 and get a DDR3 based laptop (this time not a notebook ).

[CoffeeFiend]

Play old games. There are loads of great old games that will still run fine. Or modern "indie" games will most likely run fine too such as Peggle, World of Goo, Audiosurf, Torchlight, Plants vs Zombies etc.

So true. There's loads of them for sure, and tons of newer "simple" games are a lot of fun (I've wasted way too much time on plants vs zombies lately)

And CoffeeFiend: Sure a 4850 would kill his 3200 but remember it's a laptop and even high end laptop GPU's get beaten by middle class desktop GPU's

Yeah, I know. I just used it as some kind of reference point (not necessarily the fastest).I had to pick something. It's a fairly well known card with decent gaming performance was/is in the reach of even most non-hardcore gamers (i.e. a fairly decent gaming video card still), and that's 12x faster than what he has. If I picked a 5770 then it's probably more like 15x. Just showing how far behind it is.

Oh and I wouldn't recommend a 4850 anymore either. If you were to get a desktop get something like a 5770 or better

I probably wouldn't get a 4850 either, not that I plan on spending $150 on a vid card anytime soon (my old passively cooled 4670 is still overkill for my needs, although even a 3200 mostly fits that bill too)

[Zenskas]

@ puntoMX: Yeah good idea, DDR3 is now cheaper than DDR2 and you would be far more futureproof.

@ CoffeeFiend: PvZ rules...

It's far behind but again you can't exactly get much gaming performance from a laptop without spending a bit

Haha the passive 4670 in my Shuttle does OK too, way overkill for the Pentium 4 but I sold my "LAN-BOX" so need to update my sig...

But yeah I would say a 5770 would be a decent choice if you were to get a desktop for gaming. A 4850 would be OK if you can get one second hand cheaply. I know you can get them for well under $100 second hand here in Aus which is $100 cheaper than a 5770 new.